The Beginning of World War 2 to the End of World War 2

br A NECESSARY EVIL LEADING TO AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE br Whether World War Two is deemed to have begun when Germany invaded Poland in 1939 or when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 , 1941 World War II was thrust on the United States . In Japan , a government believing that national survival required the creation of an empire ruling every nation that touched the eastern Pacific , felt it had to smash the United States '92 Pacific forces to prevent any American interference . 1 1 Herbert T . Feis , The Road to Pearl Harbor (New

York , New York : Atheneum , 1964 , pp . 84-88 , 110-19 , 209 , 26 236-50 . In Europe , dictators whose abuses would make them the symbols of man '92s inhumanity to man undertook their efforts to carve out an empire that was to last a thousand years . 2 2 Winston Churchill The Gathering Storm (Boston , Massachusetts : Houghton Mifflin Company , 1948 ) pp . 405-668 . It lasted not six years , hardly lessening the horror

The United States came reluctantly to this conflict . Ahead of most Americans , President Roosevelt realized that the long-term survival of the America he knew and loved required that the United States resist the Nazi /Fascist onslaught in Europe by taking steps to protect England during its hour of peril .3 3Robert A . Divine , The Reluctant Belligerent 2d ed (New York , New York : John Wiley Sons , Inc , 1979 ) pp 132-41 Feis , pp . 122-32 , 165-70 . His task of bringing the United States into the war was made easier by the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor , and by Germany '92s declaration of war on the United .4 4Divine pp . 163-64 James MacGregor Burns . Roosevelt : The Lion and the Fox 1882-1940 (New York , New York : Harcourt , Brace World , Inc , 1956 ) pp 461-62

In April 1945 , a reluctant Harry Truman assumed the presidency , saying to one aide , '93I hope to God I can measure up to the task '945 5David McCullough . Truman (New York , New York : Simon Schuster , 1992 br

. 348 . Within days , he would be told of the secret and terrible weapon with which he would end the war with Japan weeks later .6 6McCullough , pp . 372-73 . Too soon , the '93hot '94 war would shift into a '93cold '94 war , in which the United States confronted its one-time Soviet ally as an ominous new enemy .7 7John Lewis Gaddis . The United States and the Origins of the Cold War , 1941-47 (New York , New York : Columbia University Press , 1972 . The future that victory had seemed to promise was much less secure than America had hoped it would be

The United States could not have avoided World War II . Germany and Japan forced it on their reluctant opponent . In the same way , a post-war settlement in which the United States would oppose Soviet domination could not be avoided . Having thrust these roles on America history may judge America generously , finding that America , like the Truman who had to lead it , acted with integrity and character .8 8McCullough , 992 .SOURCES USED Burns , James MacGregor . Roosevelt : The Lion...